Philippine troops kill 9 Islamist militants in clash, including 3 linked to bombing

Nine Islamist militants including three suspects in a Catholic Mass bombing in the southern Philippines have been killed in a clash with troops, the military said Saturday.

Army soldiers shot it out with about 15 Dawlah Islamiyah suspects hiding out at a mountain farm close to the remote southern municipality of Piagapo on Thursday, the commander of the military unit said.

The firefight left nine of the gunmen dead and four soldiers wounded, including two who were taken to hospital with “serious” wounds, VOA reported.

According to the military, three of the six suspects in the bombing of a Catholic Mass at a school in the southern city of Marawi last month were among those killed in Thursday’s fighting.

Militant attacks on buses, Catholic churches and public markets have been a feature of decades-long unrest in the south.

Manila signed a peace pact with the nation’s largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014, ending their deadly armed rebellion.

But smaller bands of Muslim fighters opposed to the peace deal remain, including militants professing allegiance to the Islamic State group.